God of War (2018)

God of War 4 - First Impressions

Honestly I'm not going to lie, I was not expecting much from Santa Monica studios with this, especially considering the praise around this game has slowly yet subtly died down as well as the appreciation. After a couple hours, I actually find that odd, because GoW4 really has an incredible combat system at its core, even if heavily flawed in certain ways. It is very much a kiting and enemy setup game. I like the way you have to keep attention of multiple enemies and risk-reward what’s safe and when to go for an extended combo. The fact that you can hit enemies against each other for more stun or walls encourages a lot more spacing and knowledge of enemies near each other. Fucking wish the game had a minimap in the top right corner like God Hand though.

Other than that, the presentation and general aesthetic so far is well built and pleasant to journey through, with some goodish music and excellent art. The story is still firmly in setup phase but I'm starting to grasp the heavy emphasis on themes of family the game explicitly throws at you (a riddle with it literally being the solution is maybe a bit much santa monica).

I have a lot of issues with the combat underlining and rpg progression but it's hard for me to pin them down when i'm so early in, so right now my first impressions are very very high.

God of War (2018)

Read safely, spoilers are blurry. Image's descriptions may appear when you hover over images and may contain spoilers, beware.

Time played today: 8 hours.

Total time played: 17 hours.

Difficulty: Hard - "Give me a challenge"

Current chapter: Chapter 9: The Sickness

So I continue my journey in the God of War Nordic world, and I'm astonished at the quality of this game, and the fun and rewarding experience it actually delivers. I've beaten a good number of bosses now and I've gone trough gear and weapons upgrades, and I love the feeling of power flowing inside this game. It never fails to be excellent.

I've completed the following chapters :

• Chapter 5: Inside the Mountain

• Chapter 6: A New Destination

• Chapter 7: The Magic Chisel

• Chapter 8: Behind the Lock

I'm trying to play in a sort-of collectionist mode, I stay in each room until I get the most chests, artefacts and hacksilver I can. This obviously takes some time and hence I'm taking more hours to finish the game, but hell am I enjoying it.

The puzzle experience is also pretty neat, all puzzles are challenging but they succeed to be in the perfect place between challenging, quick to solve (for the most part) and rewarding.

I've also defeated my first Valkyrie, it took an hour to beat her in Hard difficulty. My thumbs and wrists hurt after that battle, and it was f*cking amazing. (It was the one present after recovering the magic chisel, inside the first real hidden chamber one can open in the game, maybe I should've waited before doing this battle).

That's all for today. Now I have to cure my sick soon or else... (?)

See you later people. As always, I leave some screenshots of my playtrough with descriptions.

What a pleasure it was to kill Magni

Timed played today: 9 hours.

Difficulty: Hard - "Give me a challenge"

Current chapter: Chapter 5: Inside the Mountain

So this is the next game on the list for my 2020 game plan. I've started it today on February the 3rd rather than tomorrow, because I had some spare time and I wanted to play something new. So here it is. I've played around 9 hours today (a shame GoW nor PS4 lets me track my in-game time). I'm playing the game on Hard - "give me a challenge", because I want to feel that rage I used to feel with older GoW, and yep it delivered. I have not changed the difficulty for now, even when some boss fights and enemies gave me a hard time. Specially those fucking Dark Elves

Right now I've just finished the 4th chapter 'The Light Of Alfheim'. I took my time today to search for most of the collectibles, open chests and solving the puzzles I saw. The game is amazing, graphics are really neat and I do feel like I'm playing a renewed God Of War. Oh dear, I really missed Kratos and this game.

To recap, I've completed:

Chapter 1: The Marked Trees

Chapter 2: Path to the Mountain

Chapter 3: A Realm Beyond

Chapter 4: The Light of Alfheim

And I have just started:

Chapter 5: Inside the Mountain

Which I will continue tomorrow. I'm digging this game hard for now. I kind of dislike that I can't grab and tear apart my enemies that often, but other than that, this game is great.

As always, some screenshots...

See y'all soon.

Finished the main story. My favorite aspect of the game is the control scheme. It makes you use all of the buttons and makes you feel like a real warrior. I would only change the fact that you have to press "circle" to obtain power ups. It seriously breaks the flow of fights. What I propose instead: You should automatically pick power ups when you walk over them and if you're health / rage meter is full, then nothing should happen so that you won't waste them. Also I hated the "blind" effect.

Not really sure about Muspelheim and Niflheim because I haven't finished them. But Muspelheim kinda felt like forced to make it longer with silly challenges like "Kill all enemies while they are in golden circle" :)

Overall an amazing experience but the standard ending was a letdown to me. I expected something crazy like, giants or Thor and Odin making appearances, but no. Atreus being called as Loki was interesting though. Now, I wanna continue to play to finish other realms and stuff but I don't like this "secret endings" in video games. At least tell us how to achieve it, right?

I picked up God of War again after an eight month break and while I had trouble finding the solution to a puzzle I’d stopped at, I picked up the combat in no time. The axe feels even better than I remember.

As if sensing why I stopped playing last time, the game finally showed me the first real sign of Kratos’ affection for his son. Here’s to hoping there’s more of that as the story continues.